There was more talk about machine guns in oral arguments than I had hoped for in a case that had nothing to do with it.  We are a long way from machine gun rights if oral arguments are any indication. We may never get there.
8 thoughts on “Lots of Machine Gun Talk”
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I’m rather surprised about that too, sadly I’m much more shocked over Guras arguments for banning of (those) arms in interstate, the “shall not be unreasonably infringed” and some of his somewhat less then friendly stands on a right that “shall not be infringed”
it’s good strategy from the anti-gun side. the case has nothing to do with MGs but they scare people. And they get pro-gunnies panties in a twist. Check out subguns.com as an example.
I was a little bothered that the most discussion of MGs seemed to be by Gura; Hell the SG seemed to indicate that an individual right to firearms suitable for militia use would include MGs, but please let us regulate them
I hope someone’s recording this press conference with the DC side now. It’s comedic. The DC COP just argued that there ARE handguns in DC and it’s not a complete ban because the government is allowed to have them.
WOW, how stupid of us to overlook that fact.
I was surprised on the amount of machine gun talk as well. As I heard it (as a non-lawyer) Guras basically sacrificed the machine gun issue in hopes of strengthening his argument against DC’s laws. While I disagree with his (Guras) position on machine guns, he had a legal duty to advocate Heller’s case, not to advocate for all gun owners.
i need to make the time to listen to the arguments, i see. without doing that, i’m almost happy to hear that MGs got emphasized — that might mean the court is just looking for some excuse, any excuse, to keep them banned and are willing to go our way on everything else, just so long as they won’t have to worry about MGs going free by any accident. but then, i’m one who’s never for a moment thought the fully auto registry would ever get opened again no matter what.
That’s right. Gura is throwing the machine gun issue under the bus to get an individual rights ruling, and for now, that’s what we’re going to have to do. We’ll work on the machine gun issue later.
I’ve changed my mind – the MGs aren’t under the bus so much as sent to the back of the line. Baby steps. When the Solicitor General says he can’t make a good argument that would distinguish between a handgun and a machinegun, we’re not doing too badly. Recall that all the MG questions were asked by Justices who are outright hostile to the individual rights interpretation. Leaving the Hughes Amendment for a more convenient season is a good idea.